A carnival of characters, each with a story to tell

There are painted warriors and hitmen, tattooed tough guys and brawling body builders.

Some are fat, some are skinny, some are chiseled and even more are somewhere in between.

Super heroes and villains, dastardly heels and bravado-brimming babyfaces, they are comedians and clowns, aerial acrobats and grounded grapplers.

It is a band of brief-clad brothers striving to please an audience, follow a passion and earn a living.

From curtain jerkers and jobbers to champions and main eventers, they make up a cavalcade of characters not often seen at your everyday job, though most of them hold one down.

They are all gathered on a Sunday afternoon in Glendale ready to put on a show. Littered throughout a makeshift second-story locker room at the Glendale Studios, professional wrestlers of all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds are practicing holds, going over spots and preparing for their time to shine.

At a July taping of "NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood," much like the diverse gathering of performers there is a gamut of goings-on throughout the second story where some are prepping for promos, others are going over the last details of their matches and still some are relaxing as if it is just another day at the office.

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It is an odd scene, but one they're used to, for the most part, though many of them are seemingly very different, not just at first glance, but in who they are and where they've come from.

But on this afternoon they've all come together in one place and the question begs: Just who are these people that call themselves professional wrestlers?

Long ago in Chicago

"Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce and Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana have both come from the same place.

It's a Sunday afternoon in Glendale, but on Saturday night in Kansas City, Pearce and Cabana were the main event, this time seeing Pearce get the better of his rival and bringing to a start his fifth NWA world title reign.

"I'm used to it by now," Pearce, 34, said of the mind-spinning travel. "But that doesn't make it suck any less."

Before Saturday night's title tilt, both Cabana and Pearce were in Chicago. But that was long ago, when two Illinois high school football players began their journeys to the crazy world of professional wrestling.